Brennan Park, home of the Knights from 1921-76, had a left-field grandstand similar to Comiskey Park-an upper deck topped by a roof. Every once in a great while a slugger would blast a home run onto the left field roof. It took a tremendous blast of about 480 feet to do it, but some renowned sluggers and a few unknowns, both for the Knights and opponents, managed to accomplish the feat, with a few of them doing it twice.

Few, if any, sportswriters or prognosticators gave the Knights any sort of prayer of competing with the Mets in the NLCS. The smart money held that the Mets were simply the better team. This was the team, after all, that had blown away the National League two years ago, running up a record of 108-54, far outdistancing all other competition in the division that year. The Mets didn’t exactly play like a destructive machine in the postseason-a hard fought LCS with the Houston Astros went six games,...

The Knights celebrated long in their clubhouse, then went out to the French Quarter and partied even longer.

The next day they showed up for the season finale bleary-eyed and toasted. The fans gave them a long, sustained standing ovation when they took the field. Goodman rested most of his regulars as did Lasorda. The Dodgers won the battle of benches 7-0 to draw within 1 game of the Knights at the end. The 16 inning victory the night before had been crucial. The Knights would have...

Tommy Lasorda, meanwhile, tipped his cap to the Knights. “They just flat out beat us” he said. “We wanted it. We wanted it bad. I thought we were comin’ into tomorrow tied for first after the Big Fella went deep in the 16th. But we couldn’t hold it.”

Orel Hershiser was glum. “The record is great, and I’m happy that the fans cheered for me when I got it” he said. “But I would have gladly given up nine runs in the first if we had come back to win 10-9. I would gladly given up a run and...